Assassinated

Image from People Magazine On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.     Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prominent leader of the American Civil Rights movement. He utilized peaceful protest and his powerful rhetoric to press for civil rights laws and behaviors, incredibly noted in his "Letter From Birmingham Jail" and his "I Have a Dream" speech. In 1964, the Johnson administration passed the Civil Rights Act and MLK earned the Nobel Peace Prize.      On April 3, Dr. King spoke to a rally of his supporters in Memphis, Tennessee. After the rally, he checked into the Lorraine Motel. The next evening while leaning over a hotel balcony to chat with his friends, he was shot by James Earl Ray. The shot proved fatal, and within the span of approximately one hour, Dr. King was dead.      King's death was announced in a speech by presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy (who was assassinated only two months later, in June 1968). The a...

Image from Fox News On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.      John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States, from 1961 until his death in 1963. The handsome and charismatic Kennedy was the first Catholic president, and with a team of young advisors, including his little brother Robert F. Kennedy as Attorney-General, ushered in the optimistic dream of an American golden age. As president, JFK had a hand in confronting many Cold War tensions abroad, including in Berlin,Vietnam (see Ngo Dinh Diem ) and in Cuba, with the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis. In the domestic realm, Kennedy launched the Peace Corps, and hoped to bring about income tax cuts and a civil rights bill.      On November 22, 1963, Kennedy and his posse were in Dallas, Texas on a fundraising trip. Paraded through downtown Dallas in a motorcade; while incredibly festive, there was a clear lack of effective security precautions. As the president's limousine...

Image from History.com On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.      Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States from 1861 to 1865, and died while in office. He is notable for having been president throughout the American Civil War and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in the Confederacy to be free. The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865 with the surrender by Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. Five days after the Union victory, President Lincoln attended a play at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C.      Only minutes after the president's arrival at the play, a gunshot erupted from his box. John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the back of the head once, then leapt from the box to make his escape. In the process, Booth broke his leg, creating a hindrance in his ability to flee far on foot, though he managed to ...